Physician Assistant (PA) Salary by State (2025 BLS Data)

Physician assistants (PAs) — a role a growing number of states and employers now call "physician associates" — remain among the highest-paid clinicians who practice without a doctoral or medical degree, and hiring has stayed brisk across primary care, surgery, emergency medicine, and hospital settings. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) program, the national annual mean wage for physician assistants was $141,280 in May 2025, and the national annual median was $135,880. The median is often the more useful "typical" figure: it means half of PAs earned more than roughly $135,880 and half earned less, and unlike the mean it isn't pulled upward by a smaller number of very high earners.

Where a PA works matters nearly as much as what a PA does. The table below breaks pay down by state using that same OEWS May 2025 dataset, so you can see how each state compares with the national numbers above.

Rank	State	Annual mean wage
1	California	$169,110
2	Washington	$164,430
3	New Jersey	$162,100
4	Oregon	$155,300
5	New York	$155,150
6	Vermont	$152,520
7	New Hampshire	$150,150
8	Alaska	$148,080
9	Minnesota	$147,630
10	Connecticut	$146,930
11	Hawaii	$146,780
12	Rhode Island	$146,630
13	Massachusetts	$146,480
14	District of Columbia	$146,230
15	Indiana	$144,260
16	Delaware	$143,840
17	Virginia	$142,630
18	Arizona	$140,850
19	Montana	$140,800
20	Iowa	$139,870
21	Maryland	$139,740
22	Colorado	$139,580
23	Oklahoma	$138,700
24	Missouri	$137,710
25	Wyoming	$137,320
26	Wisconsin	$136,750
27	Ohio	$136,560
28	Texas	$135,850
29	Nevada	$135,790
30	Maine	$134,690
31	New Mexico	$134,670
32	Florida	$134,470
33	Nebraska	$132,810
34	Idaho	$132,540
35	Utah	$132,530
36	Michigan	$132,140
37	South Dakota	$131,910
38	Illinois	$131,880
39	North Dakota	$130,930
40	Louisiana	$130,290
41	North Carolina	$130,030
42	West Virginia	$128,830
43	Kansas	$127,240
44	Pennsylvania	$125,160
45	South Carolina	$120,720
46	Kentucky	$119,990
47	Arkansas	$118,430
48	Tennessee	$117,300
49	Georgia	$112,090
50	Alabama	$110,860
51	Mississippi	$106,820

Figures are U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics OEWS annual mean wages, May 2025 (51 states/territories with published data; BLS suppresses some states, which are omitted rather than estimated).

What drives the differences

State-to-state gaps in PA pay are real, but they rarely come down to a single cause. A few forces do most of the work:

• Cost of living. High-wage states are frequently also high-cost states. A larger number on an offer letter in a coastal metro may not stretch further than a smaller number in a lower-cost region once housing, taxes, and daily expenses are factored in. Always read salary alongside the local cost of living.
• Supply and demand. Where PA training programs are scarce, patient volume is high, or health systems are competing hard for staff, wages climb. Fast-growing regions and states with clinician shortages tend to pay more to attract and keep talent.
• Rural and hard-to-staff premiums. Rural hospitals, critical-access facilities, and remote clinics often pay above the local baseline — and sometimes add sign-on bonuses, loan-repayment support, or housing help — because recruiting is harder. Some of the strongest offers show up in places that don't top the average-wage charts.
• Employment setting and specialty. OEWS reflects all industries that employ PAs, from physician offices and general hospitals to outpatient centers, surgical practices, and government. Procedural and surgical specialties, along with roles carrying heavy call or night coverage, generally pay more than lower-acuity outpatient positions in the same state.

Because these factors interact, two PAs with the same title in the same state can be paid very differently depending on their specialty, employer, shift pattern, and years of experience.

How to use these numbers

These figures are a solid starting point for benchmarking, but read them with a few caveats in mind:

• Mean vs. median. The mean (average) is sensitive to a handful of very high salaries, so it usually sits above the median. The median better represents what a typical PA earns. When you weigh an offer, compare it to the median first, then judge where you'd expect to fall relative to it.
• All settings are blended together. State and national figures combine every industry and specialty OEWS surveys. A statewide average mixes higher-paying surgical and emergency roles with lower-paying outpatient ones, so your specialty and setting can move you well above or below the headline number.
• OEWS measures wages, not total compensation. The survey captures straight-time wages and salaries. It does not fully reflect bonuses, sign-on incentives, productivity- or RVU-based pay, overtime, call pay, benefits, retirement contributions, or loan-repayment programs — all of which can add up to a meaningful share of real-world PA compensation.
• Individual offers vary widely, and self-employment isn't captured. OEWS reflects wage-and-salary (employed) workers. PAs who work through independent contracting or locum tenens arrangements, or who earn significant income outside a standard employer payroll, may not be represented the same way. Your own offer will ultimately turn on experience, credentials, specialty, geography, and negotiation — not on a statewide average alone.

Used carefully, the OEWS data is best treated as a compass rather than a price tag: it tells you which direction the market runs and roughly how far apart states sit, so you can walk into a negotiation informed rather than guessing.

References

• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)
• U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics — Occupational Outlook Handbook: Physician Assistants